Jose M. Romero was an early educator, social worker, and community college trustee in Colorado.
The following portrait of Romero is reprinted from Colorado: Latin American Personalities, a wonderful little pamphlet published in 1959.
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In 1920, Jose M. Romero was helping to take the census, a job that is done every ten years in the United States. On his rounds as a Census Enumerator, he met an old school teacher, who convinced him he should take up teaching as a profession.
Romero had worked for two years in order to pay his way through Trinidad Business College in 1919.
He had run into prejudice in attempting to land a position in office work. He decided to enter teaching.
Within two years he was principal of the Sarcillo Grade School, where he remained for ten years. Later he moved to the Weston Grade School, where he again became principal, in 1936. In 1938, he changed to the Madrid Middle School, again as principal.
In 1939, he decided that teaching was not bringing him into contact with some of the real problems and troubles of people. He changed his career to social work, a field he has followed ever since.
Today he is a Case Worker for the Alas Animas County Welfare Department and has been offered opportunities to become director of Costilla and Otero County welfare departments.
He was president of the South Central Welfare Association in 1948 and has been active in the Colorado Welfare Conference.
Although he is no longer a teacher himself, Jose Romero has continued to serve education, as a member of the board of Trinidad Junior College (which he has served as president and secretary in past years); as president of the Albert V. Berg Memorial Foundation, a scholarship fund; and as an active helper in obtaining educational grants for younger Latin Americans through the Alianza Hispano-Americana and LULAC.
In addition to these activities, he was president of the Latin American Conference, 1954-55, is a member of the board of the Colorado Federation of Latin American Groups, and was treasurer of the Las Aminas County Tuberculosis Association for six years. He has also been active in politics, being a delegate to county and state party conventions and even running for office of state representative, in 1938.
